Fears of a widening sovereign European debt crisis are hammering stocks in the U.S. and abroad, while Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was forced to defend his nation's solvency, as worries persisted that Greece's sovereign debt crisis is headed next toward Spain.

Frank Ahrens

Lawmakers debate a "bank tax" that would help pay for bailouts of troubled financial institutions.

Frank Ahrens

Got predictions for Friday's unemployment numbers? Send them to me on Twitter at @theticker.

I've begun following the coverage on the Greek debt crisis and wondering if there are potential parallels here in the United States. Like Greece, our ability to finance our expanding debt is becoming more and more difficult. No one wants to be responsible for either expanding taxes to cover our obligations or slashing entitlements to slow the growth of the debt. What do you think are the lessons that we can learn from what is happening in Greece and how do you think those lessons could be packaged so that the masses could accept some of the difficult actions that might be required?